Chinese Recipes

Chinese cuisine is known for stir-frying, dumplings, noodles, dim sum, Peking duck, and mapo tofu — though it is really eight major regional traditions, from Sichuan's numbing-hot málà to Cantonese steamed delicacies. Its foundations are wok technique, the soy-wine-vinegar pantry, rice in the south and wheat in the north, and a shared-plates style of family eating.

No — heat is concentrated in specific regions. Sichuan and Hunan cooking are genuinely fiery, using chilies, doubanjiang, and numbing Sichuan peppercorns. But Cantonese cuisine, the tradition behind dim sum and most early Chinese restaurants abroad, is deliberately mild, prioritizing ingredient freshness. Jiangsu and Zhejiang food trends sweet and delicate. The majority of China's regional dishes are not spicy at all.

Takeout standards like General Tso's chicken, chop suey, and crab rangoon are diaspora inventions, typically sweeter, more heavily battered, and sauce-thickened than mainland cooking. Home cooking in China is lighter: quick vegetable-heavy stir-fries, steamed fish, soups, congee, and dumplings, with rice as the bulk of the meal. Sweet-and-sour exists in China (Shanghai's squirrel fish) but as one dish among thousands.

Tomato and egg stir-fry is the ubiquitous Chinese home dish and takes ten minutes. Fried rice teaches wok management with leftovers. Garlic stir-fried greens (bok choy or gai lan) build the oil-aromatics-vegetable sequence. Mapo tofu from jarred doubanjiang is forgiving and authentic. Jiaozi from store-bought wrappers make a good weekend project before attempting dough from scratch.

Light soy sauce for seasoning, dark soy for color, Shaoxing wine, Chinkiang black vinegar, toasted sesame oil, oyster sauce, cornstarch for velveting and thickening, and a neutral high-smoke-point oil. Fresh ginger, garlic, and scallions are the aromatic base. Add doubanjiang and whole Sichuan peppercorns if you want to cook Sichuan dishes. White pepper, not black, finishes soups.